Do real estate courses sufficiently develop graduates’ employability skills? Perspectives from multiple stakeholders

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accredited real estate courses in the UK have equipped real estate graduates with sufficient relevant employability skills to embark on a career in the profession. This paper considers the perspectives of four stakeholders – employers, human resource managers, graduates and course directors of RICS-accredited real estate courses – in the UK. Design/methodology/approach – The results of a mixed-methods study, involving two online surveys with real estate employers and recent graduates of RICS-accredited real estate courses, and two sets of interviews with human resource managers of real estate surveying firms and course directors of RICS-accredited real estate courses, are presented. Findings – The employers and graduates of the RICS-accredited real estate courses do not think the courses sufficiently equip graduates’ with employability skills. On the other hand, the human resource managers are very impressed with graduates’ technical skills but have concerns about their soft skills and attributes. Human resource managers and course directors of RICS real estate courses commented that commercial awareness is an important employability skill but graduates are not well developed in this area. Course directors also noted that practical experience is vital to employability, commenting that students can only obtain real-life practical experience if employers offer them opportunities. Originality/value – This paper makes an original contribution to the existing literature on employability skills for real estate graduates. It describes pioneering research considering the perspectives of four types of stakeholders and evaluates whether real estate courses sufficiently develop graduates’ employability skills.

Competencies for fresh graduates’ success at work: Perspectives of employers

“…Scholars have attempted to classify competencies into two categories, 'hard' skills and 'soft' skills (Deaconu et al, 2014;Dunbar et al, 2016;Orr et al, 2011;Poon, 2014;Stewart et al, 2016). Hard skills are those connected with the technical aspects of acquiring the knowledge to perform a job (Matsouka and Mihail, 2016), and soft skills are those related to personal interaction and are behavioural in nature (Andrews and Higson, 2008).…”

“…Researchers argue that soft skills are more important and are in higher demand by employers (Dunbar et al, 2016;Fleming et al, 2009;Orr et al, 2011;Poon, 2014;Stewart et al, 2016). However, in a qualitative study, Rainsbury et al (2002) found that hard skills and soft skills were perceived to be equally important by graduates and students.…”

“…Based on data gathered from job advertisements placed in the careers section of newspapers, Dunbar et al (2016) found that employers placed greatest emphasis on soft skills and discussed technical skills to a lesser extent. Further supporting this hypothesis, an online survey conducted in the United Kingdom concluded that human resource professionals were very impressed with graduates' technical skills, but expressed concerns about their soft skills and attributes (Poon, 2014). A study soliciting comments from the Romanian labour market revealed that employers viewed transversal competencies as more important than professional ones (Deaconu et al, 2014).…”

“…While students may rate their competency levels as high in general (Stewart et al, 2016), organizations tend to have a different perception (Mamun, 2011) and continue to demand ever higher standards. In turn, there is an increasing demand for universities to produce graduates who are more practically work-ready (Alhelalat, 2015;Jackson, 2010;Low et al, 2016;Poon, 2014). Thus, the aim of this study is to examine employers' opinions on the competencies that contribute to fresh graduates' success in the workplace.…”

From A Literature Review To The Conceptual Framework For The Employability

“…The value of employability can be associated with the way companies function in modern times (Helyer & Lee, 2014). In order to design jobs today, individuals are in need to interact and work with teams to accomplish their organizational objectives (Matsouka & Mihail, 2016;Poon, 2014).…”